u/Andrew__IE

6 years into this app, most recently after the transfer of ownership I’ve noticed that a significant number of videos that do well don’t necessarily have a hook. Atleast not in the way you’d expect.

At times I’ll watch high performing videos to analyze them and I realize that they don’t have anything strikingly remarkable but once a video hits a specific like/save/share/comment count, that almost becomes the hook itself. Seeing the stats on the right side of the page is enough social proof to make a user stop and watch the video, almost as if THAT is the hook.

I’ve thought about this ever since this past winter when the algorithm started pushing out videos that came out MONTHS before you see it, (A majority of vids I see now are from at least a month ago).

Nowadays it seems like all the successful creators benefit from being tapped into their market to where they can post whatever even if it’s not “quality” and their followers will enjoy and interact with it, making it more appealing to new viewers on the FYP. Once they see the engagement column, that’s enough for them to be at least intrigued. To add to my point, I’ve seen a significant amount of quality videos that have low likes and views but for whatever reason they don’t take off. Most of the time it’s smaller accounts though so I’m sure it has to do with them not having that social proof that pushed their videos out more.

In my own videos, the ones that took off the most were when I didn’t follow a format and just spoke. They also had the least amount of time put into it, which is fairly frustrating.

What do you guys think? Is the basic “HOOK>Content>CTA” format dead?

I keep finding myself feeling bad about the fact that these are the cards I’ve pulled in life and I’ll be like this forever. I feel like some sort of impure being.

Even if I go into remission and stop having PEM for years on end I’ll know in the back of my head something can go wrong and I’ll always have to be cautious of over doing it and re-awakening the beast. I could wake up feeling normal tomorrow and I’ll continue to feel on edge for the rest of my life. It’s like I’ve lost that carefree do whatever I want, when I want, for however long I want to attitude that comes with not having to worry about such a thing. That’s probably what I miss most: just being able to do what the fuck ever, when the fuck ever. And it’s such a shame because I lost that at the age of 17, right when I was supposed to enter the prime of doing what ever I wanted.

I would have liked to chase my dreams to the fullest: workout super hard, get super fit, go on hikes and runs with my friends and family, make new friends, have a lotta sex, try new hobbies and reading all the books I want to, diving deeper into my interests in acting & public speaking etc etc. Y’know, just literally whatever.

It hurts a lot to accept the fact that through all my biological makeup and gene expression, this is the life I have to live. I’ll forever have to worry about how much I’m doing and that severely limits the goals and dreams I may set for myself, even if I were to go back to normal. I’ll always be worried about it coming back. I feel like a different type of human.

TLDR: Sad that my genes set me up for this life and hurting that I’ll never be normal. I feel like less of a human.